A dog's blog about the places she has been – Updates on even days of the month

Tag Archives: Savannah

Once the ride was over, we did a little shopping in the marketplace, then returned to the car to drive on; this time we went via Route 17 over the massive cable bridge over the river to enter South Carolina; This is a cultural corridor, with all the signs of local culture; the first thing you see is a gentlemen’s club with live entertainment. Shortly after that is a billboard advertising a fully automatic shooting range. Then the cap it all off, there is a billboard advertising hospital services for those who did not fare well at the first two cultural establishments.

Driving on to Charleston seemed to take longer, but we made it just before sunset, so we could see the bridge to Mt. Pleasant.

Like this:

The Cotton Exchange, one of three places in the world where cotton prices were set prior to the Civil War.

Savannah was the first settlement in Georgia, which was the last of the original thirteen colonies. It is laid out on a grid iron plan which is remarkably well preserved – of the original 24 public squares on the original city plan, 22 have survived. The living oaks, draped with Spanish Moss and the early flowers give the city a distinctly antebellum feel to it. It is also a varied city in terms of architecture, as there is a fine example of virtually every type of building style present to admire.

Churches dot the city – and it was the site of the oldest Jewish synagogue in the nation. And the Girl Scouts were founded here as well. Not to mention the notable restaurants, bakeries and so forth that were pointed out along the drive as if it was product placement – which it probably was.

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By the time we reached Georgia, the skies were clearing, and by Savannah, there was plenty of blue. But no facilities. We pulled off the highway expecting a gas station or restaurant, but there was nothing on the darned parkway until we popped up in the heart of old Savannah.

We finally parked in a city parking garage, found the tiniest, weirdest McDonalds with only two unisex bathrooms to use, had an ice cream, and went into the city market.

The goal was to take a carriage ride; with Trixie in her cart, we opted for the Trolley ride, and got an excellent tour of the city seeing most of the squares, churches and antebellum housing close up. Given the close proximities, Pops had to use the iPhone to take photos along the ride.

Like this:

Tribe thought she could drive in the rain – she has a license after all…

We departed Lake City in the midst of a horrific rainstorm, which slowed our progress; a couple of lightening strikes came way too close for comfort!

Florida’s vexing roads continued to plague us as well, as we threaded our way to the highway to Jacksonville, where we headed north onto I-95. Of course there were slowdowns, due to the deluge of rain, and an accident where someone had so totaled his semi truck cab (no trailer thank goodness) that only the frame with the wheels could be seen on a flatbed, and they were digging the upper bits of the cab out with a backhoe in the wet swampy land. Serves them right for not having the highways not nearly wide enough to accommodate the traffic. Most have a wide median strip – overgrown half the time – and narrow pull off strips that dive down into the ever present swamps.

We paused for Ice Cream, then returned the way we came, visiting Fort Pulaski. This was a state of the art brick fort during the Civil War era, and successfully proved brick forts were obsolete when Union forces forced its surrender after a 30 hour bombardment The leveled corner was rebuilt – and the area was used as a prisoner holding area.

The fortress is very large and relatively complete, a classic shield fort surrounded by a moat, perched in the center of a flat swampy island that ensured control of the waterway. We went in, Mum and Trixie exploring the lower level and Pops went to the upper level. From there he could spy a small lighthouse on the river, Cockspur light. But swampy fields and distant forests made the fort seem to be a place out of time, awaiting a chance to stand tall again.